Dettol commemorated Global Handwashing Day 2026 with actions throughout Lagos Kano, Rivers and Abuja, equipping college students and communities with sensible handwashing expertise and inspiring them to champion higher hygiene.
The actions aligned with this 12 months’s theme, ‘Be a Handwashing Hero’, which calls on people to make handwashing a every day behavior and encourage others to do the identical.
According to UNICEF, 3 in 5 Nigerians don’t have fundamental handwashing services at residence, highlighting the continued want for collective motion to enhance entry to hygiene schooling, services and behavior change interventions.
In Abuja, the commemoration befell in Kwali Area Council in collaboration with The Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation, bringing collectively authorities representatives, growth companions and group leaders to advance efforts to enhance hand hygiene and stop infectious ailments.
Representing the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Engr. Prof. Joseph Terlumun Utsev, FNSE, the Director Overseeing the Office of the Permanent Secretary, Engr. Ali Ibrahim Dallah, highlighted the necessity for coordinated motion to enhance hand hygiene nationwide.
The minister known as on state governments to develop and implement hand hygiene motion plans inside six months. He additionally famous that the deliberate nationwide hand hygiene marketing campaign goals to succeed in roughly a million Nigerians by means of bodily and digital actions.
Urging college students and younger folks to make handwashing with cleaning soap a every day behavior, the minister mentioned, “Be a Handwashing Hero—not only today, but every day!”
Across Lagos, Rivers and Kano, Dettol and The Wellbeing Foundation Africa hosted academic programmes reaching over 1,000 college students and group members. Through displays, sensible demonstrations and interactive group classes led by Reckitt workers, college students learnt how germs unfold and practised correct handwashing methods. They additionally shared their views on the qualities of a Handwashing Hero, highlighting the function they will play in selling optimistic hygiene behaviours past the classroom.
Speaking on the Lagos occasion, Cassandra Uzo-Ogbugh, Head of External Affairs, Media and Partnerships, for Reckitt West and East Africa, reaffirmed the corporate’s dedication to enhancing public well being by means of hygiene schooling.
“At Reckitt, we’re dedicated to placing higher well being in additional fingers every single day. Through our Clean Naija Initiative, we’re serving to enhance hygiene behaviours and construct more healthy communities throughout Nigeria. The Dettol Hygiene Quest, delivered in partnership with the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, is likely one of the methods we carry this dedication to life.
“Having reached more than six million school children over the past decade, we are on track to reach an additional five million by 2030. Global Handwashing Day provides an important opportunity to bring together government, educators, community partners and volunteers to reinforce the simple hygiene behaviours that help prevent illness and support healthier futures for children and families across Nigeria,” she mentioned.
Founder and President of The Wellbeing Foundation Africa, Her Excellency, Mrs. Toyin Ojora Saraki, represented by Adanna Maduka, Director of Policy, Partnerships and Grants, emphasised the worth of integrating hygiene schooling into faculty curricula to assist youngsters develop lasting habits and affect optimistic change.
“I have long held that hygiene is a lesson for life as much as a lesson in health, which is why the Hygiene Quest is delivered through our Clean Naija Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene curriculum. PSHE provides a curriculum-based foundation for our partnership, complementing foundational learning by equipping every child with the knowledge, habits and confidence to keep themselves and others well.”
To assist continued follow in collaborating faculties, Dettol and The Wellbeing Foundation Africa introduced handwashing supplies, together with handwash stations.
The actions type a part of Dettol Hygiene Quest, a hygiene program created by Dettol and Implemented by the Wellbeing Foundation Africa. Through this initiative, Dettol is delivering hygiene schooling throughout faculties, communities and healthcare centres in Nigeria. By 2030, it goals to succeed in 11 million youngsters and assist them flip what they study into lasting habits, in order that safer hygiene practices change into the norm at residence, at school and locally.
